Larry Norman Message Board

The only tribute albums of Larry songs that have come out so far that I know of are like One Way, which was mostly CHR/ Adult Contemporary/ CCM artists, with certain exceptions like Grammatrain (sp.). But Larry was one of the best song writers of his generation, and I think a punk/ alt rock/ metal tribute is in order. Many of them could also be done Black Gospel, as was done with some of Dylan's gospel songs. Just dreaming here, but were I calling the line-up, at first take, here are some of my favorite Larry songs.

Ha Ha World is one of the psychedelic songs from Upon This Rock. There's an excellent version with Stonehill in the background, and it's so psychedelic you might call him Stonedhill. Upon This Rock is a dazzling, overlooked album, and the two disc version available at Larrynorman.com (here) is a great deal, as it includes the Powerline interview. In the background you can hear the original Capitol recording. The actual CD is the version Larry remixed which Capitol sold to Impact/ Benson, but which I think sounds a lot better. This is also the album that gave us "Sweet Sweet Song of Salvation," which actually made it into church youth groups and the Young Life songbook, although only by losing the blue notes which make it so great. This is a great song, and there's a version on Bootleg of Larry singing it at a youth leaders' convention which is both light hearted and energizing.

Why Don't You Look into Jesus is a great rocker from Street Level, and is also called Jim Ware's Blues, and is on a lot of concert albums. It's such a great rock/ blues song that Richard Lovelace wrote about it in Dynamics of Spiritual Life (IVP). The other bookend to this song is "Without Love You Are Nothing". These songs are Larry in the groove and in the zone.

Be Careful What You Sign, also known as Thirty Eight Thornton Special, is a great apocalyptic story song from So Long Ago the Garden. This is a dazzling psychedelic blues song. A similar theme occurs in 666, recorded in a very different musical version by Frank Black.

No, it doesn't rock, but I've always thought that "I Hope I'll See You in Heaven" is one of Larry's best songs. It's poetically dazzling and musically understated, sort of like Phil Keaggy's Time or (Your) Love Broke Through by Stonehill, Keith Green and Todd Fishkind. Kind of like a People song, a very personal Larry song. It's on Stop This Flight and in a few collections.

Something New Under the Son is an overlooked masterpiece in that it plays like a real rock album, say one by the Who. The dazzling, heavy guitar is by John Linn (whom I once saw play with Chuck Girard from Love Song, and Linn took the songs to a whole new level). The standout cut is Watch What You're Doing, but there's a lot of almost talking blues like Let the Tape Keep Rolling which was also on a Greenbelt album (but this is a better version).

I haven't even mentioned Only Visiting This Planet, or the 'fifties rocker, Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music, which was also covered and released in the UK as a single by Cliff Richard, or the evocative Pardon Me, the astounding folk rock protest song, Great American Novel (also covered by Gene Cotton), or the blues rocker Reader's Digest. Petula Clark, the 'sixties diva known for Downtown also covered a song. I think it was I've Got to Learn to Live Without You, from Only Visiting, which was produced at George Martin's Air Studios in London.

Some Larry songs would be difficult to cover as they are mostly about performance. We used to try to remember all the words to the epic title track of So Long Ago the Garden, called, I think, Nightmare number 71, not to be confused with a similarly titled song on Something New called Nightmare Number 97.

Of the later Norman discs, I like Messiah and the title track from Stop This Flight, Come Away, Step into the Madness, Under the Eye, White Trash Stomp, and I Will Survive from Stranded in Babylon, Leave It Up to God to Handle, Long Hard Road, Elvis Has Left the Building, and You Shall Be Saved from a rare album called A Moment in Time made as a benefit to fight child pornography in Oregon (and a great album), Feed the Poor, Father of All and Dark Passage from Tourniquet (Dark Passage was left off the later version of Tourniquet but is in some collections).

Now that Street Level and Bootleg have made it out on CD, one can hear the original versions of Right Here in America, Peace Pollution Revolution, I've Searched All Around the World, The Price of Living, and Sigrid Jane, What songs do you think would make a great tribute album? Who would you want to hear do them? -Gord Wilson, gordrw@yahoo.com, alivingdog.com